May Could Have Lowest Toll Since '04

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military announced Saturday the death of a Marine in Anbar province, as May ended with what could be the lowest monthly toll since American-led forces invaded five years ago.

If no additional deaths are reported, the U.S. military toll for the month would be 19, according to the independent Web site icasualties.org. The last time that the number of U.S. deaths approached that level was in February 2004, when 20 service members were killed. At least 4,084 U.S. personnel have been killed since the start of the war.

The latest U.S. death Friday wasn't linked to combat, the military said in a statement. It provided no further details about the incident.

Two Georgian servicemen also were killed last month.

The number of Iraqi civilian deaths also fell last month, from 923 in April to 504, according to Health Ministry figures.

The drop in casualties comes as U.S. and Iraqi officials are claiming big gains against the Sunni Muslim militant group al-Qaida in Iraq, while a truce has curbed fighting with Shiite Muslim extremists.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said in Washington last month that Iraq violence had hit a four-year low and that he probably would recommend further troop cuts after most of the 28,500 extra forces deployed last year left by the end of July.

But the improved security trends haven't been matched on Iraq's political front. Left unresolved are the simmering tensions among Iraq's major ethnic and religious groups, which could flare again into violence.

Talks aimed at bringing members of the main Sunni political alliance back into the Cabinet collapsed recently over who would occupy one of the seats. Most Sunni representatives quit Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in August, accusing the country's majority Shiites and their Kurdish allies of refusing to share power.

U.S. officials hope that provincial elections slated for the fall will give Sunnis a bigger stake in the government. But the vote could become a flashpoint for violence, as the current power brokers are challenged by factions that boycotted the last vote in 2005.

Iraqi troops have taken the lead in the latest crackdowns in Basra, Mosul and the Baghdad district known as Sadr City, leaving U.S.-led forces in a support role, where they are less exposed to attack. At least 27 Iraqi soldiers and 32 police officers were killed nationwide last month, according to government figures.

The number of attacks by Sunni insurgents has dropped significantly since the U.S. troop buildup reached its height in June 2007. And tens of thousands of Sunni tribesmen have joined the fight against the extremists in their midst.

The offensive in the northern city of Mosul - which U.S. officials have called the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq - has met little resistance. That suggests most fighters have fled the city or are lying low.

U.S. commanders caution, however, that Sunni extremists remain capable of inflicting lethal attacks.

Sheik Hikmat Ilgoud, mayor of the Anbar town of Hit, survived a suicide bombing Saturday that killed 10 people and injured 12 others, the Interior Ministry said. The assailant blew himself up at a police checkpoint minutes after the mayor's convoy left the site. Such attacks are a trademark of al-Qaida in Iraq, a mostly homegrown group that U.S. commanders say is foreign-led.

The government's crackdown in Basra in late March triggered an uprising by militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. That development drew in U.S.-led forces and threatened to unravel the recent security gains. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed, many of them civilians, when the fighting spread to Sadr City and other Shiite sections of the capital.

The bloodshed in Sadr City has subsided since Shiite lawmakers loyal to al-Maliki signed a truce with al-Sadr's representatives May 12. But tensions between the main Shiite factions remain high, and sporadic clashes persist in other parts of the capital.